The weekend was full of rain, but that didn’t stop me from going out and enjoying myself anyway.

Friday night was spent eating, drinking and generally being merry. I went to Costello’s, which is a sandwich place I’d yet to try out. They had this macaroni and cheese with crushed red pepper that was ah-mazing, and they had lots of veggie-friendly options available too (no more turkey burgers for this girl!). After an incredibly filling dinner, I went out for drinks and was waited on by a girl who literally had guns tattooed on her biceps. I thought that was pretty fantastic, although my own personal guns aren’t big enough to warrant such a display. Maybe they would be if I spent more time working out than I do eating and drinking…but where would the fun be in that? Exactly.

After a delicious brunch Saturday morning, a manfriend was nice enough to take me grocery shopping and spared me a miserable bus ride in the rain with pounds of food. Since it was so stormy, I watched a movie on my couch and then took a semi-ridiculously long nap (for future reference, American Psycho is not the best film to watch before trying to take a relaxing nap). After the nap, it was time to head downtown to meet up with some ladies, as a gal pal of mine was having a birthday. We met up for Mexican food and margaritas and we sat at the smallest table known to humans. One margarita was lost to the floor in the hubbub, but I guess it could’ve been worse. After dinner, we wandered around in search of a bar. While we were looking, we encountered something that pretty much made our night: a Naked Bike Ride.

Apparently this is an event that takes place all over the world and we happened to be lucky enough to encounter it on the streets of Chicago. Men and women of all shapes and sizes proudly rode their bikes nude down Michigan Avenue. Some of them had on little undies and a few wore pasties, but a surprising majority were clad only in their birthday suit. I took a few pictures but they didn’t turn out that great, and to be honest I was trying to watch and didn’t want to be fooling around with my camera the whole time. I think this picture is appropriate because all you can really see is a blur of flesh (I promise, there are actually naked people in this photo). Cab drivers up and down the street got a huge kick out of it, as did all of the other people standing on the side of the road watching. We all clapped and cheered and couldn’t help but pointing out a few of the more…excited members of the race. I think it made my friend’s birthday, too.

After dinner drinks were had all around and then it was time to go dancing. However, I didn’t feel like dropping $20 on a cover charge at some club so I moseyed on home. My bank account thanked me.

Sunday was yet another rainy day but I was determined to enjoy some of the free stuff happening downtown, so I trekked back there once again. I first hit up the Printers Row Lit Fest, which had tons of booths full of books, as far as the eye could see. I was in heaven. I was also glad I went by myself, because I didn’t have to worry about anyone getting bored or trying to hurry me along. I’m proud of myself for not going book crazy and I actually walked away with just one purchase – a novel about an Egyptologist in the 1920’s. It’s next up on my to-read list and I can’t wait.

It started to pour while I was at the book fair and I thought about heading home, but by the time I got to the train station the rain had let up so I figured I’d venture on to the Chicago Blues Fest in Grant Park. The free festival featured at least four stages of music and tons of food and beer, and the rain wasn’t stopping anyone from having a good time. I’m including another semi-crappy picture, but hey, it’s better than nothing at all. You can see how foggy it was all around, which was actually kind of nice because the weather wasn’t hot or humid, just a little damp. I’ll take it.

The Blues Fest was pretty cool and I spent a few hours just wandering around and listening to music. I also grabbed a bit of food and was going to get a beer until I realized I’d be paying the ticket equivalent of about $6 for a shitty Bud Light. Instead, I visited the OceanSpray juice booth a few times and helped myself to their free samples.

I am, after all, the Queen of Frugal.

One thing I noticed at the Blues Fest was the wide variety of people in attendance. There were parents there with their kids, groups of hippie looking high schoolers who were clearly in need of a shower (and this is coming from my hippie-loving soul), frat guys and their bored looking girlfriends, older people there looking to rock out and just about every type of person in between. I also noticed the difference in footwear. Most people were donning sneakers or sandals but quite a few were sans shoes altogether and employing the barefoot look. Honestly, that kind of grossed me out – as hippie as I can be, you’ll never see me wandering the streets of downtown Chicago without footwear. At one point, I noticed a barefoot kid dancing right next to this guy wearing some crazy boots – I tried to take a picture but the boots were made for walkin’ and it was hard to keep up. This is what I got:

And I’m more than a little bummed that this picture didn’t really turn out. Since you probably can’t tell, those are snake skin boots. They featured actual snake heads on the tip of each shoe. The picture would’ve been even better if this guy had stood still and let me photograph him while he was standing next to the barefoot hippie, but I gave up trying to control other people many moons ago. Clearly, though, people from all walks of life were at this festival.

Even with the rain, I think my weekend was a success. And since I have a year until the next Naked Bike Ride, perhaps I’ll overcome my fear of riding in the city and try to join in? Considering the recent dream I had where the brakes on my bike went out mid-ride, that might not be the best idea. As one of the girls I was with Saturday mentioned, can you imagine wrecking on pavement while not wearing clothing? Right. Maybe being a spectator is wild enough for me.